A Fashionable Guide to: Hospital Stays

For those regular readers you may have noticed I missed my usual Monday editorial/runway images and Thursday regular posts. I promise you I have a very good, albeit unfashionable, reason for this: I was in hospital. Why? For the very boring reason that I am one of the rare people in the world who have Behcet's syndrome (when you google it, the fourth search suggestion is how to pronounce it - I still have to say it five different ways for a doc to know what I'm talking about). It's a disease described as "insidious" and largely I agree as it lands me in the hospital for long stays and often very little clear answers. I got a clear answer this time though, happily, and now I am appendix-less! So, in celebration of that charming fact I thought I would share with you, my readers, the fashionable guide to: hospital stays!!

1. Beautiful blooms. To brighten up your mood, remove the hospital sterilisation smell and also because they're pretty! 

2. Trashy Mags. Gossip, celebrities and fashion - what more do you need?!

3. Lip balm. This is an essential. I don't think you can comprehend how drying the hospital environment is until you're forced to spend a week in it. Whilst you have have to forego your usual arm-pit, legs and eyebrow management, dry lips are something easily managed no matter how sick you are. My choice? Chanel's Hydramax + Active Nutrition Baume Lèvres, for a person with chronically dry lips it is simply the best. It is a little pricey at 50AUD for a tub of 0.35OZ, but for me one tub will last about six months - so in my books it's worth it. However it is being reproduced under another new name shortly....fingers crossed they don't change the serum!

The first three important things are shown in this picture! 

4. Guilty Pleasure TV Shows. Everyone has them. Admit it. Whether it's watching The Real Housewives Of... or The Voice or Sixty Minutes - everyone has a guilty pleasure TV show. For my 60yr old English Lit teacher in University it was The O.C.! But for me it's America's Next Top Model and the Rachel Zoe Project. 

5. Track Pants and Comfy (but fashionable) Tees: despite what Karl Lagerfeld said about sweat pants, even he's released a Chanel version of them this year, and for hospital they really are great. No one likes a hospital gown. I saw waaaaay too many butts when I was there and unfortunately I think I few people saw mine before I was able to rectify this necessity. 

6. A View: as Diana Vreeland once said, when she was asked how one became Diana Vreeland "one must arrange to be born in Paris, after that everything follows quite naturally." And whilst as charmingly impossible that arrangement may seem, getting a view in a hospital is too dissimilar. By 'a view' in this case I mean a glimpse at the outside world that is non-hospital. The sky or grass for example. Many hospitals are built with inner courtyard and have windows that look inwards into such enclosures - but these views are often highly depressing, especially if you can see the elderly who are obviously being "let out" for a walk in there. A window to the world outside hospital is essential if you can swing it, if only for it be like flowers and just cheer you up a bit. 

7. Fancy Footwear: after a week in hospital I've seen it all! From the multi-coloured and rhinestones UGGs to those fluffy boots they used to sell at Target to velvet loafers and slippers so ratty I think they were older than I am. My choice of footwear is Peter Alexander (aka the King of Pyjamas) slipper-socks. The ones pictured on my instagram were bought by my mum for my latest hospital stay and are too cute to not like however ridiculous they are. 

(A furry friend like a teddy bear for your weaker moments also doesn't go astray, but you didn't hear that from me!) 

Fashion is a weapon, use it charmingly